A Look Back, April 16

50 Years Ago

• Hampshire County officials say that they have viewed 11 sites other than land at Northampton State Hospital which could be used for construction of the proposed new $6 million county jail. The major reason all of these sites were rejected, county officials say, is that the site at the state hospital is better suited for the jail and could be obtained at no cost from the state.
• Mayor David Cramer presented a $15.2 million budget for the next fiscal year to the City Council last night. The budget contains 20 new positions, calls for no layoffs and includes no funds for new raises for city employees, but does include a 5 percent increase in city pensions.

25 Years Ago

• The Who’s Next!? Deli at 159 Main St. in Northampton was the scene of a reunion Friday for graduates of the Pioneer Valley Enterprise Program, including the new store’s owner, Sherry Pasternack. The four-year-old state-supported effort trains laid-off or displaced workers as entrepreneurs. Some 250 people have completed the program since 1997.
• Two trumpeter swans took an Easter morning stroll from their home at the University of Massachusetts campus pond into downtown Amherst. Officers responding to a report of swans obstructing traffic found them in the middle of Triangle Street.

10 Years Ago

• The Plainfield Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously Wednesday to issue a special permit to Freedom Healthcare of America for an alcohol and drug rehabilitation treatment facility planned for the former Academy at Swift River. “You have done a great job addressing our concerns,” ZBA Chair Dudley Williams told the company’s CEO and founder Brent Clements.
• A protest demanding that the University of Massachusetts abandon it investment in fossil fuel companies continued for a fourth day Thursday, drawing 150 people to a sit-in at the UniversityÕs main administrative building that ended with no further arrests.